June 28th

Israel played a role in influencing Russia to cancel its sale of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria, Army Radio quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as saying Thursday.
Russia suspended the sale of the advanced system to Syria in what could be an outcome of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Israel earlier this week. Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres discussed the issue of Syria with the Russian leader during his short stay in Israel.

Those loyal to the Syrian regime will have snapped up the free gift recently given to them by Israeli television. An Israeli channel has aired a short film featuring individuals described as “activists” engaging in a risky venture by entering “hostile” land to provide assistance to Syrian refugees. The film begins with the following words: “al-Assad slaughters the Syrians. While the world remains silent, there are those who do something…the Israelis”.

The Interior Ministry in Gaza announced Thursday that it will broadcast confessions of Palestinians who collaborated with Israeli intelligence.
The ministry will release video footage of collaborators' confessions on Thursday evening on its website and other outlets, it said in a statement.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems more stuck than ever. In the present stalemate, recent efforts by several foreign governments – including South Africa and Denmark – to insist on a clear distinction between products originating in Israel and those from settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are significant. These efforts can help pave the way to peace.

Following decades of administrative neglect, the Israeli government announced on Thursday the allocation of 355 million shekels (90 million U.S. dollars) to repair collapsing sewer and water treatment infrastructures in Arab towns nationwide.
Israeli Energy and Water Resources Minister, Uzi Landau, said his ministry had reached an agreement with the Treasury to increase budgets and grants for new sewer systems and waste treatment plants, according to the Ha'aretz daily.

Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to receive Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz.
The meeting between two leaders, which is scheduled on Sunday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, will be the first time in years that Abbas meet a senior Israeli official, especially since the peace talks between the two sides stalled in 2010.
"This meeting benefits only Israel," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, Abbas' bitter rival which governs the Gaza Strip.

The time-out between the latest round of fighting and the one to follow allows us to undertake a strategic assessment of our Gaza policy. Ever since Operation Cast Lead, and especially in recent months, we are managing the struggle using only tactical means. In this framework, we aim to identify the organization that fired at us and then target the rocket launchers.

Israeli scientists are working on a new pre-battlefield treatment which could prevent soldiers from later developing Post Traumatic Anxiety Disorder (PTSD), local media reported on Thursday.
According to Tel Aviv University's Talma Hendler and officials at the Functional Brain Center at the city's Ichilov Hospital, the "neurofeedback" method is aimed at teaching the subjects how to gradually change their brain's reaction to a traumatic experience.

Seth Mandel, responding in the Commentary blog to my article in Haaretz on settlements, does what settlement defenders almost always do: He changes the subject.
My article discussed the impact of settlement on American Jewry; talked about why settlement is in fact a major obstacle to peace; and endorsed changes in settlement policy – such as those proposed by Dan Meridor and Alan Dershowitz – that would be good for peace, for Israel, and for strengthening ties with American Jews.

The Palestinians on Wednesday made a final push to have UNESCO recognize the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the Israeli-controlled West Bank as an endangered World Heritage site, despite misgivings by Christian denominations and a cool response from the U.N. agency.